130 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 21. 
PRUNING THE PEACIT. 
It is to bo hoped, that from the unusual amount of 
solar heat and light our Peaches and Nectarines have 
enjoyed during the past summer, that much less com¬ 
plaints than formerly will he made about the blossoming 
in the ensuing spring; and that people will once more 
take heart as to their culture. The winter-pruning of 
the Peach, although not so important an affair in these 
days, when good summer management is carried out, as 
formerly, is yet a thing requiring a little skill; I may add, 
a good eye and a sharp knife. Like most other pruning 
operations, the best way is to tbin-out all over the tree 
first, at least, removing those ill-looking or ill-placed 
shoots of young spray, which it is certain will not be 
required. Of course, in the selection of spray, ripeness 
in the wood will be a prominent point for consideration; 
and the character of wood, in this respect, may, in 
general, be determined by its colour ; its inaptitude for 
bending, too, is another pretty good criterion; added to 
this, such wood is generally shorter-jointed than late- 
made, and, of course, immature wood. The character of 
the buds must also be looked into ; old or exhausted trees 
are apt to prove short of wood-buds; shoots may be 
occasionally found in such trees which only possess one 
such bud, and that at the very extremity of the shoot. 
These, of course, when they must be retained, may not be 
shortened. Speaking hero of shortening, lot me observe, 
that there is no Act of Parliament, no absolute necessity, 
for shortening every shoot. Let the young primer bear 
this in mind ; for after our fine summer there will exist 
less reason for so much shortening than usual. 
With these considerations, then, the young primer, 
knife in hand, may proceed to thin out first; and! 
the first point is to take caro that no portion of the 
tree be left bare if it be possible to avoid it; at the 
same time, with equal care, to see that no part be 
crowded ; and here we may endeavour to guide him as 
to distances, &c. I would make it a maxim not to have 
two young shoots exactly side by side, without older 
wood, or extra space, intervening; when I say side by : 
side, I mean two young shoots commencing and termi¬ 
nating at or about the same point. If I could cause ! 
the wood of my Peach and Nectarine trees to sprout 
where I liked, 1 would have every succeeding shoot, 
from the collar upwards, start from a point opposite the | 
middle of the young shoot below it; thus the shoots i 
would be regular as thatching, and with a full supply of 
bearing shoots, there would be just room to train down 
the summer wood, without resorting to what 1 must 
term the cramming system. In selecting the future 
crops of wood, great care must bo taken of all those 
young shoots which are placed lowest down in the 
branch from which they emanate; these have the im¬ 
portant office of furnishing, as a nursery, the upper 
portions, should they give way by disease, or otherwise. 
Peaches trained by the fan mode, which is by far the 
best, as being least artificial, and requiring least time 
and attention, have, of course, a number of angles 
formed by the division of one branch into two; and ; 
within these angles, respectively, it is most desirable, j 
in order to keep the tree regularly clothed, to retain the i 
lowest young shoot at all times, and, also, to prune it ' 
back to a few eyes, in order to render those portions a ! 
nursery wherewith to meet future contingencies. 
And here I may observe on the removal of old j 
branches. Everybody knows that age, overbearing, 
insect injuries, &c., are, occasionally, apt so to derange 
the system of the tree as to cause a rearrangement of 
the branches necessary; and that in some cases the 
amputation of decaying old branches becomes a duty. 
These are, I confess, serious affairs, but they must bo 
grappled with. The Peach is very impatient of these 
severe operations, although it will hear any amount of 
pruning in the young shoots. Every good gardener is 
apt to falter or hesitate when he meets with a case of 
this kind. However, where a large branch is barren, or 
nearly bare of young spray, it must come away; and it 
should bo removed by a sharp instrument, with a clean 
cut, not too close to the junction point. People are too 
apt to talk of cutting such very close, and paring them, 
to enable them to “ bark-over,” &c.; but this generally 
ends in disappointment Peaches and Nectarines in 
their old branches are not so ready to heal. I have 
seldom met with a good case of “ barking-over.” I 
should recommend, therefore, that an inch or so of the 
stump be left, and that it be dressed carefully without 
delay; for if success is desired, the air and moisture 
must be excluded. I really cannot say what may be the 
best application; but I have always used good white- 
lead or thick paint. But such things should not be 
applied when the stump is in the least degree damp, or 
the chance is, that the paint will one day come off. 
The wound beiug quite dry, we rub a little thin paint on 
it; and on this, a few days after, when quite dry, apply 
the white-lead, or rather a very thick paint, colour im¬ 
material. The tree,' after these slashing operations, of 
course, must be rearranged; and when these proceedings 
are anticipated, the pruner must leave a little wood to 
make up blemishes. 
All these things carried out, the shortening may he 
done as a final measure; and here the operator must be 
ruled by the degree of maturity in the shoots ; removing, 
also, those portions of young wood which, being situated 
in the thicker portions of the tree, may be advancing 
too far for those ahead. 
As beginners may want to form an idea of the degree 
that may, in general, he pruned away, I may observe, that 
if anything like a general rule may be offered, perhaps 
about a fourth-part. Let not this, however, mislead; in 
cases of bad ripening, or abuse from insects, tlnee-parts 
have sometimes to be removed; such, however, are 
extreme cases. Where shoots have been pinched in 
summer, and made a second growth, that growth may 
he removed down to a single eye, or bud, and not cut 
entirely away; at least, such is my general practice; 
for it will be found that the summer pinchiug-back plan, 
forms a knot or callosity much more self-protective 
than what is called a clean cut into the free portion of 
the young wood. 
If any scale, or other insect, be susjrected, let the 
wood be dressed the moment the priming-knife ceases, 
be the period what it may. 
For a general dressing of this kind, nothing, as far as 
I am aware, exceeds the soft-soap mixture, so often 
recomended; say, nearly two ounces of soft-soap, beat 
up in a gallon of soap-suds, and two or three handfuls 
of sulphur well blended with it. 
In my next, I will deal with Rears, which will be as 
much of winter-pruning, probably, as our readers desire. 
R. Errington. 
MEETING OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
7th November. 
(Continued from page 118.) 
After all that has been said and done, to put things 
right, or to put them wrong, by Acts of Parliament, 
there is no place in the world, perhaps, in which fair 
and lawful competition is allowed to be the life and soul 
of trade more than in London ; and not only trade, but 
everything else, between St. Giles’ and St. James’, is 
kept alive and in vigour by free competition. Con¬ 
sumption itself) the direst enemy, after cholera, to some 
constitutions, is vigorously competed for in London, 
and is kept alive there. Yes, consumption is kept alive, 
by a fair profit, in London. Market-gardeners thrive 
host by consumption; but the long sweep between the 
